Knife donation to state bowhunting org

[diyguy]

I'm making a custom knife and sheath as a donation to the WBH to be used at the annual convention in March. I hope this and the other great prizes will be an extra incentive to attend the convention.
I thought I would share the steps that go into the making of this custom knife.
The blade is a drop point hunter and is forged Damascus Steel made from 1095 and 15N20 steels. I did not make the blank but rather purchased it as I do not have the tools or capabilities to make Damascus. I could have made the blank myself from O1 steel like I have in the past but I wanted this knife to unique and special so I went with a Damascus blade with a lot of character. Every every Damascus blade is a one-of-a-kind. I have a friend who makes a lot of custom knives and he told me of his source in Idaho Falls called two fingers knives Llc. and that I was sure to get a good quality blade. He was right.
The blank is a hefty 1/8 inch thick with a 3 1/2 inch blade and a 4 1/2 inch handle. The blank is mar-quenched and tempered to a Rockwell hardness of 57. This knife is sure to have great edge holding ability.

For the scales of the knife (sides of the handle) I wanted to keep the whole idea of the swirling pattern in the blade and in keeping with the one-of-a-kind idea so I am using hard rock maple burl died green (WBH color) and then stabilized with wood hardener to prevent the normal swelling and shrinking that happens to wood.

Normally, swelling and shrinking is not a problem with this sort of handle but I want to make extra sure the wood is stabilized because I am going to be inlaying metal and enamel WBH logos into the handle and I don't want the future owner to feel a line where the medallions and the wood meet and I want to make sure the medallions stay put for the life of the knife.

In keeping with uniqueness, I want all the little things to have detail. Rather than using a single material pin such as brass or copper or silver nickle or even aluminum I am making custom pins for the joint between the scales and the blade blank. I am making mosaic pins with an aluminum outer sleeve followed by a brass sleeve and then 3 aluminum pins inside the brass tube. All the parts of the mosaic pins will be held in place with J.B. Weld because I want the black background to contrast with the shiny aluminum just like the black and sliver lines in the blade.

Here they are after the epoxy is set and I ground the end flat on a belt sander.

And a close up.

 

[diyguy]

I rough shaped the maple scales to fit the blank. I held the sides in place with two scrap pins.

Next, I roughed up the handle portion of the blank as well as the glue sides of the scales. Epoxy does much better with a rough surface than a smooth one.

I then drilled a shallow pocket in each scale for the WBH medallion.

To prevent scratching the blade, I pre-shaped the front end of the scales before attaching them to the blank.

The final prep work for the scales was to epoxy the medallions in place.

Once the epoxy that holds the medallions in place was cured, I attached both knife scales to the handle of the blade blank. I masked off all the areas of both the blank and the handle that I did not want to get epoxy on. This epoxy has a 3,500 pound holding strength and the wood scales and the knife blank are now forever joined.

After 24 hours, the clamps are removed and the tedious task of getting the epoxy covered tape off begins.

The joint is a good one with no gaps, just a nice thin line of epoxy between the blank and the scales.

The next step is to shape and smooth the handle. This is done with belt and palm sanders with various grits and then hand sanding and finally steel wool. I am pleased with how well the WBH logo shows through the epoxy.

The final step to finishing the handle is to apply several coats of tung oil finish. I rub each coat in with my finger tip and let it dry for 24 hours. I then buff it with fine steel wool and apply another coat. 4 coats should be enough. This wood has already been stabilized, It is already water proofed but this will further seal and water proof the wood and act as more of a protective coating that will take the abuse of every day use and if scratched, can be repaired with another rubbing with Tung oil and a little buffing.

 

[diyguy]

In between coats 3 and 4, I used the knife to make the pattern for the sheath. I always make a pattern out of my favorite leather substitute.............. Cereal box paper board (otherwise known as crapalloy). This sheath will hold the knife by friction with a deep pocket that goes part way up the handle. It is a one piece with a folded belt loop.

Seems like a good fit.

I then transfer the pattern to some creamy 8 Oz. Veg. tanned leather and cut it out with a razor knife.

The first step is tapering the end of the belt loop so I have less bulk down in the pocket of the sheath.

Then I crease and wet the leather to make the fold.

I hold everything in place for stitching with rubber cement.

Then punch the stitching holes with a forked punch.

I want to see the stitching so I am using a waxed white cord. I put a needle at each end of the cord and stitch back and forth around the hole pattern.

Before I fold the sheath in half, I add a welt made from 4 Oz. leather. It protects the stitching and adds a layer of leather thickness so the blade has room in the sheath.

Once cemented, I wet the leather with a small paint brush and stamp in a pattern along the edge of where the stitching will go.

And then punch the stitching holes.

Using the same white cord and double needle method, I join the two sides and the welt.

It's hard on the hands and a pliers is needed to pull the needle through but the end result looks pretty good.

With the stitching complete, I trim off the excess leather.

8 Oz. leather is pretty stiff but once wetted, It can be formed and molded like clay to the shape of the knife.

A little time at the end of a blow dryer, locks the shape into the leather.

 

[diyguy]

The next step is to give it a bit of color. I mixed, brown and Ox Blood and a little alcohol to get the reddish brown I was looking for.

Once all the alcohol is evaporated, I need to replace all the oils lost during the forming and dyeing process. I use warm neatsfoot oil and a cotton daubber. The oil also darkens the leather a bit more.

After sitting for a few hours wrapped in a paper towel, I warm the sheath with a blow dryer and apply a rub down of mink oil to further condition and water proof the leather. It turned out pretty good considering it's humble beginnings and will hopefully protect the knife better than it protected the cow that once wore it.

On the off chance that the future owner of this knife does not want to take her into the field and put her to work, I will design and build a display stand so it can sit all pretty like. The Damascus blade should not be stored in the sheath for long periods of time not to mention what a shame it would be to hide that blade from view.

 

[diyguy]

Every year I do a different knife for the org. I did a 2 knife set and I have been wanting to make an Ulu. The knife blade is made of 1/8" thick Damascus made from 1095 and 15N20 (2% nickel) steel. (with a great swirl pattern) The handle is osage with bloodwood spacers.

The sheath is 8 Oz. Tooling leather with a dimpled pattern then hand stitched, stained and oiled.

The Ulu has a 3/6 thick 420 stainless steel blade and also has a osage and bloodwood handle as well as the WBH logo on both sides.

The display base is oak and antler with a WBH medal.

 

[diyguy]

Another years donation.

I went back to the good folks at Two Finger Knife LLC and bought another forged Damascus Steel blank made from 1095 and 15N20 steels.

I also bought a set of Amboyna burl knife scales because of their beauty and the numerous, captivating swirls.
Amboyna Burl wood is extracted from the jungles of Southeast Asia and often transported (at least initially) via elephant. It is a favored wood used by folks that make knife handles and pens or bowls. It starts out reddish in color and over time and exposure to light, it turns a warm brown/red. The photo below gives a false impression of the color and exaggerates the red.

I won't use just Amboyna for the handle. I want to dress up this handle with a few different woods.

The woods I'm using are
1. South African, Bloodwood
2. South American, Cocobolo
3. Good old Wisconsin, Hard rock Maple
4. Sotheast Asian, Amboyna
This knife handle will have an impressive global pedigree

After laying out the pattern I wanted, I cut the pieces to size and rinsed 1, 2 and 4 in Acetone to remove the oils so the epoxy would give a better hold. Here they are waiting for the slow cure epoxy to do it's thing.

I am also making the pins from a variety of materials such as aluminum, brass, copper and maple. They will also be held together with epoxy.

Once all the components have time to cure, I will assemble the parts and shape the wood into what is hopefully a comfortable and attractive grip.
After the epoxy cured, I use the blade as the pattern to outline the shape of the handle and then cut it to size leaving a little extra material all the way around for cleanup. I also decided to add 1/16 thick Cocobolo spacers.

The spacers go against the metal of the handle and give another layer of color. Here it is assembled for a dry fit-up test.

Fast forward past sanding and applying 8 coats of super glue as the finish and this is what you have.

I think the cocobolo spacers give a great look to the handle.

Since the center of the pins is maple, prior to applying the finish, I held a red Sharpie marker against the wood and let it soak up the red ink.

Fast forward a little more and I have a sheath.

Flash forward again and you see the display base I made from bubinga. I used the same red/brown stain that I used to die the leather for the sheath to make the wood a little more red. I added a small antler and a WBH lapel pin and a gloss lacquer finish. I hope this knife helps in their fund raising effort.

 

[diyguy]

Both handle have Hard rock Maple bow laminations as spacers. This is left over from the bow I built for my son. The handle scales are Cocobolo with brass pins. The handles are protected with 5 coats of super glue and buffed to a satin finish. The base is walnut and shed deer antler with a WBH medallion. I still need to make the sheaths.

Here are the sheaths for these knives. I used 8 Oz. Tooling leather. It always starts with a cardboard template that I fit to the knife until I am happy with the shape. Leather is not cheap but cardboard is free. Then I transfer the pattern to the leather.

After folding the belt loop and attaching it with two brass rivets, I used a swivel knive to cut in an outline for a pattern I would be tooling into the leather.

Then I wet the leather so the tooling will remain after the leather dries.

I used a pear shaped shader to dimple the leather. Here's what it looks like after it dried.

Next, I wetted the fold line, added a welt and used rubber cement to join the welt to both halves of the fold. The welt protects the stitches from the knife blade. Then I punched the stitching holes.

After stitching, I trim the excess leather for an even outline. Then the sheath is soaked in water and fitted to the knife. Its like working with clay. The leather takes the shape and stays put while I use a hair dryer to dry the leather.

While it might be hard to see, I stained the inner pattern with a little darker red/brown stain than the rest of the sheath. After staining, I apply neatsfoot oil and after two days wrapped in a paper towel, I give it a good rub down with warned mink oil. Now it's nicely waterproofed and has a good sheen.

The same is true for the neck knife sheath.

 

[diyguy]

During a trip to Texas, my colleagues and I stopped at a great steak restaurant. (not hard to do in Texas) When our orders came, they were accompanied by a really great steak knife.

The knives are nice and big, very sharp and had a combination of straight and serrated blades. I liked the knife so much I asked the manager if I could buy some of them because I had a project in mind. A deal was brokered for some new, unused knives and I was on my way.
In order to make the knives suitable for a donation to the WBH fund raiser, I had to customize the knives so I fitted each with an enamel /brass, WBH emblem that I embeded, down into the handle.

While the knives alone are pretty cool, they needed a suitable display. I decided to make a maple knife block and afixed a larger WBH emblem to it but it needed more so I made up a wooden broadhead the likes of a Magnus 2 blade to dress the block up a bit.

Then a nice red/brown stain and a few coats of polyurethane varnish.

 

[diyguy]

This year's knife has a forged Damascus Steel blade made from 1095 and 15N20 steels. The handle is made of Amboyna burl, Dyed buckey maple and diamondwood.
The base is stained Oak with Deer antler. The sheath is 8 Oz. tooling leather with a little bit of decorative stamping. Good luck to the winner.

 

[diyguy]

Blade: 1/8" thick Damascus made from 1095 and 15N20 (2% nickel) steel. 3 3/4 blade length, 7 1/2 inch overall
Handle: Amboynia Burl, Maple Burl with Hard rock maple spacers and brass pins
Sheath: Hand cut, stitched and dyed, 8 Oz. Tooling leather
Display stand: Antler and walnut.

 

[LAZY EYED SNIPER]

As always, outstanding work...

 

[Elucase]

Beautiful knives. And at the same time, great tutorial. All for a good cause. Good stuff.